In an effort to maximize one's ability to be “connected to the world”, individuals have acquired many personal communication devices. These include home phones, business phones, cell phones, pagers, faxes, personal digital assistants (PDA's), and the like. Unfortunately, as a person acquires more of these devices, it becomes increasingly difficult for those who are trying to contact them to remember each of the phone numbers for the various devices. As such, individuals have extensive phone lists, and often multiple lists, one for each of their phones. They may have a phone list at home, one at work, one in the car for use with their car or cellular phone, and perhaps a phone list on their PDA. These lists may all be the same, but often differ based on the needs associated with a particular device. For example, a person has a contacts list at the office comprising business numbers for which the person would have no need at home when the person generally calls social contacts.
A further problem arises when a person meets someone new. When a new number becomes important enough to be stored in a phone list, it may be necessary to update three or four different lists and keep track of which new numbers have been added to each list. This can be a time consuming and frustrating process. Often a person develops a new contact and loses the number before entering it into a phone list. It will then take considerable time to find that number again and properly enter it in the phone list.
When a person receives a call, the person can obtain the caller's phone number and sometimes their name from a caller identification unit. The person must then write the number down, and take the list to work, home, and the car to update the persons various address books. If a person wants more information about the contact, such as their address, even more time is spent looking it up in the phone book or on the Internet.
Additionally, an individual's phone records may be organized differently for different uses. For example, phone lists are often alphabetical, but an individual may have a list at home that lists numbers in order of call frequency. With our relatives or close friends at the top of the list, their numbers are easily accessible. At the office, contacts might be listed by the company they work for, rather than by the individual's name. It may also be desirable to list personal and business contacts separately.
Local companies are required by law to keep records of phone calls placed and received from each phone number. Currently these records are not easily accessible by the “owners” of these phone numbers. Phone companies track calls made to and from each phone number and store them for a predetermined length of time. Customers often get a list of long distance calls made from their number, but local calls and long distance calls made to their number are not included. One would find it desirable if those records were accessible as a means for tracking their phone activity and as a personal directory of their frequently called numbers and the numbers of those who call them.
It would also be helpful to have additional information regarding the numbers a person calls and is called from. Additional information such as a caller's name and address or other such information would eliminate the need to manually search for this data before updating phone lists.